First and foremost I'm a proud Australian! In Brisbane I got myself a PhD in diabetes research and drawing circles then lived for two two years in San Diego doing postdoctoral research in neuroscience. I'm not a fan of pretentious people, so I'm going to reveal a secret.... neuroscience isn't as nearly as fancy as it sounds!

I moved to Mountain View a six months ago for an engineering job at Google, which is a very exciting career change for me and hopefully gives me a better chance to change the world.

My parents are environmental scientists and I grew up in rural Australia as a shy boy who liked catching animals. I'll always keep those small-town, old-fashion values but life is too short to be shy anymore. Friends describe me as funny, laid-back and a gentleman. If I had just three words to choose myself I'd go with honest, playful and affectionate - the rest you'd have to figure out yourself.

I have many passions, but up the top of the list are: nature(bush-walking/hiking, camping and spotlighting), sport (soccer, touch football and tennis), music, travelling, trying new things, writing online articles (how many you'll never guess), art, comedy and.... wait for it... dancing. I’m good enough at Latin dance that I can teach a girl the basics of salsa in ten minutes flat, but I’m certainly no professional and frankly I don’t really want to be - I go for exercise and the love of music. :)

I'm also a very neat and organized person who's very excited to live in my own apartment facing a koi pond and I'm thrilled that I can finally use my weekends to have fun and explore this place! I already have a few favorite hiking trails you should ask me about! :)

I actually never imagined I'd end up working for Google, but I'm so glad that I did! My original goal was to become a lecturer, and I had various dreams and aspirations inside academia after finishing my PhD, but my old job (academia) was way underpaid!

Life throws at you things you don't expect, but my company provides such a generous and amazing workplace, I could imagine myself for them for a very long time! What's cooler still is that I work on Google maps and it inspires me constantly to travel more.... although first I'll have to clock up some vacation days.

So far I've been throughout South East Asia, to a small amount of Europe, four countries in Africa (my favorite so far!), Canada, New Zealand and the a few other random places I won't list..... but not China or Japan! *pout*
I've been to ten state in America but almost all on the eastern side, so one of these day I really want to visit the Everglades in Florida.

In a world were more and more people seem to have no time, one thing I thing I feel I'm good at is keeping in touch with and sometimes doing something special for the people I care about. I think I'm pretty good at making the people I love feel special but hey - why don't you try don't you meet me then you can decide what else I'm good at! :-P

The first thing people notice is that I'm tall.

I'd like to think older people also notice that I smile a lot and am very easy to approach and talk to. My personality is very laid back and it's in my nature to always want to keep the people around me happy. I like to laugh a lot.

MUSIC: I have pretty eclectic tastes. I like chill-out, jazz, pop, ambient techno - everything I guess. Some of my favorite mainstream artists are Coldplay, Moby, Robbie Williams, Phil Collins, Cut Copy, Fleetwood Mac, Crowded House and Kesha. Don't judge me on that last one!..... I just really like stuff I can dance to.

MOVIES: Love movies too!!! My favorite was the emotional roller-coaster "Lassy goes to the park". A few others: "The Avengers" (for action), "The Incredibles" (for comedy), "The Shaw shank Redemption" (as something serious) and "Love Actually" (for romance).

TV: Modern family, 30 rock, New girl, Monty python and Firefly.

BOOKS: I read lots of non-fiction as a kid, but if I have time nowadays I prefer reading books on physiology. Discussing that kind of stuff is always fun.

FOOD: Not fussy, but I do miss a good meat pie. :-)

> Hugs - there's nothing better than a good hug with a friend, or cuddle with someone special. ;-)
> Friends - as a new person in town, most of friends are in San Diego and Australia, but when a friend is in trouble I still try helping out however I can.
> Music and dancing - I don't dance every day, nor do I listen to music constantly, but if either went missing from life I think the world would become fairly gray.
> My car - there was a long period as poor PhD student and postdoc when I managed without a car.... but I swear I'm never giving up that independence again!
> Interwebs - I'm not big on computer games, but email and the internet is my livelihood! The web is how I connect with my friends and family back home! I can survive a month without it if I'm on holidays, but any more and I'd have some serious withdraws.
> Mental stimulation - I may have a "dr" in front of my name, but that the more you know, the more you know you don't know. Being mentally stimulated by conversation, humor and day-to-day challenges is what kepts our engines running. That and food perhaps. :-P

Cheese.... mmm cheese.

Keen to go dancing! Unfortunately Thursday is when I go to Alberto's night club, because it's too crowded for me on Fridays. I'm still getting settled in, but I anticipate that Friday I'll try and do whatever seems fun... unless it was a stressful week - then I'll just relax with a movie and wait for Saturday to roll in. :)

I never held a girl's hand till age twenty four. No I wasn't joking about being shy. Fortunately I have more confidence behind me now. :)

You like what you've read and you're curious to talk to this tall Australian doctor! ;-)